Antennaria neglecta

A soft plant for harsh places, field pussytoes is marked by downy leaves, cottony white blooms, and a preference for growing in dry, sandy, or rocky soils. In such soils under full or partial sunlight, field pussytoes will spread by aboveground runners to form a colony of plants that can serve as an attractive groundcover. In springtime, the plant sends up flowering stems to a modest height of 6-12” and blooms for approximately 3 weeks. Due to its distinctive soil preferences and diminutive form, it is a perfect choice for planting in a rock garden. The flowers attract spring mining bees, small sweat bees, and sweat bees, among others. Female flowers produce nectar as well as pollen and seem to be favored by the bees over male flowers, which just produce pollen. The plant is dioecious, with male and female flowers occurring on separate plants.

Field pussytoes is one of the primary host plants for the American lady butterfly, which produces two to three generations per year in Ohio. The undersides of the American lady’s wings are visually stunning, suggesting photographic negatives from an old roll of film. Gray and white tones predominate, forming a spiderweb pattern along with patches of pink and lilac. Gardeners can support the American lady by planting field pussytoes as well as the butterfly’s favored nectar plants, which include milkweed species.

Photo 1 by Ashley Keesling. Photo 2 by Julie Slater.